ABSTRACT
General concepts of international law and policy will apply to all types of space stations. An understanding of the concept of "large space structures" is a fundamental prerequisite to any review of the variety of space stations. Utilization of space stations that are launched as single units will probably diminish in the future. The predecessors of colonial space stations will probably be smaller manned space stations designed to accommodate the men and women necessary for orbital construction of other space stations. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Transportation System, when it becomes operational in 1980, will be a new link that permits realistic two-way traffic of men and materials between earth and near-earth orbit. Construction of a solar-power space station would be a project of much larger magnitude, and much of the construction and transportation technology must be developed.
